US President Donald Trump has signed two executive orders seeking to restrict birthright citizenship, weeks after the Supreme Court rejected his earlier attempt to end the constitutional right.
The new measures target both the eligibility of some children born in the US for automatic citizenship and the practice known as birth tourism.
Trump signed the orders on Thursday, with one expanding the categories of non-citizen parents whose children would not automatically qualify for US citizenship.
Under the order, the restriction would apply where both parents are non-citizens and one of them is a member of a foreign terrorist organisation, an employee of a foreign government, has attempted to obtain citizenship fraudulently or lives in a US territory where citizenship is not granted by federal statute.
The second order targets birth tourism, under which pregnant women travel to the US primarily to give birth so their children can obtain American citizenship.
Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said: “This should have happened years ago, but we’re taking care of it now,” while attacking the Supreme Court’s rejection of his previous attempt.
He also criticised the court’s decision as “a bad decision, very unfair decision”, adding: “Our country suffers because of it, and we’re ending in a different way.”
Trump first attempted to restrict birthright citizenship shortly after returning to office in 2025, signing an executive order challenging the interpretation of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.
The policy triggered a legal battle that reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in June that the administration’s 2025 restrictions could not stand, leaving birthright citizenship in place.
The latest orders have nevertheless revived the legal dispute, with constitutional experts questioning whether the president has the authority to determine citizenship based on the circumstances surrounding a child’s birth.
Gabriel Chin, a professor at the University of California Davis School of Law, said the administration might have authority to restrict entry by people travelling to the US specifically to give birth.
“But once it does happen, once a child is born in the United States, I don’t think the president has any power to decide that that child is not a citizen,” Chin said.
He also described birth tourism as a “drop in the bucket” when compared with the overall number of births in the United States.
The Trump administration has repeatedly portrayed birth tourism as a threat to the country, with Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller accusing some visitors of entering the US under the guise of tourism while intending to give birth.
“The real reason they’re here is to have a child, to make that child an automatic citizen, (to) leave our country and then have a US citizen child,” Miller said.
He further argued that such children could later access welfare benefits, voting rights and other privileges associated with US citizenship.
However, estimates cited by the Migration Policy Institute indicate that birth tourism accounts for a relatively small number of births in the US, with between 22,000 and 26,000 babies estimated to be born through the practice each year.
Government data cited by the institute recorded 9,600 births in 2024 to mothers whose addresses were outside the United States.
The latest executive orders are expected to face fresh legal challenges, particularly over whether the administration can impose restrictions on citizenship that conflict with existing constitutional protections.
Trump’s latest move therefore sets the stage for another potentially significant legal battle over the limits of presidential power and the future of birthright citizenship in the United States.
(The Sun)
